Elephant killed former UCSD dean

A former UC San Diego dean on vacation in Tanzania died Friday after being trampled by an elephant, according to a family member and news reports Wednesday.

“He had an accidental encounter with an elephant,” said Skyli McAfee, who identified herself as Dr. Thomas McAfee’s sister and was notified of the accident.

McAfee, 58, had resigned his position as dean of clinical affairs at the university and was to assume a new job Tuesday as chief executive of the Keck Medicine of USC Medical Foundation in Los Angeles.

Skyli McAfee declined to provide additional details about the accident, but several news reports stated that it occurred at Tanzania’s 1,096-square-mile Tarangire National Park which is home to herds of “up to 300 elephants,” according to the nature preserve’s website.

The Citizen, a newspaper and website in Dar es Salam, Tanzania, reported that McAfee and two unidentified companions were “viewing game on foot when they stumbled upon a herd of about 50 elephants.”

The trio ran from the herd, but McAfee “fell down and one of the elephants trampled on him,” it said.

It was not clear whether McAfee and his companions were part of a guided tour or out on their own.

The Citizen article noted that “visitors are supposed to be accompanied by armed rangers during walking safaris.”

The Daily Mail Online, a news website based in the United Kingdom, also posted a story on McAfee Wednesday, attributing his death to trampling. The Mail account stated that his body was still in Tanzania waiting for a death certificate to be issued.

Christina Simmons, a spokeswoman for the San Diego Zoo, said that wild African elephants, which can weigh up to 15,000 pounds, can be unpredictable.

“Particularly male elephants have been known to come upon people and startle them as well as themselves,” she said. “Very often it may not be an aggressive action. It’s just they’re they’re so big and so quick, any sudden movement can have terrible consequences.”

In addition to large herds of elephants, Tarangire National Park, according to its website, is also home to migratory wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, impala and gazelle as well as pythons, lions and leopards, all which can climb trees.

Skyli McAfee, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, said her brother was a regular world traveler who had been to Africa several times and knew that wild elephants can be unpredictable.

“My brother certainly was aware of those risks, but he was doing what he wanted to do,” she said. “He was very supportive of conservation efforts, and his family continues to be.”

McAfee had worked at UC San Diego Health Sciences since 2002, when he was appointed physician in chief, according to a news release. He previously had worked at UC San Francisco as an associate clinical professor of medicine.

Dr. Robert Wachter, a professor at UC San Francisco School of Medicine, said he remembered the dean as a deep thinker who was interested in making the health care system work better for patients.

“He looked at things with this essential optimism that we can just make the system better. He had this belief that what we were doing in medicine was noble and really important,” Wachter said.